Bizarre true story

[Guest Dunna]

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS,

President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal

complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:

 

On March 23,1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus

and

concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had

jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit

suicide.

He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell

past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast

passing

through a window which killed him instantly.

 

Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had

been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some

building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to

complete his suicide the way he had planned.

 

"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit

suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not

be

what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."

 

That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would

not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical

examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the

ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an

elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was

threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he

pulled

the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through

the window, striking Mr. Opus.

 

When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt,

one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the

murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both

said

they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Thed old man said it was his

long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He

had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus

appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally

loaded.

 

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old

couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal

accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's

financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to

use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation

that

his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder

on

the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

 

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the

son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent

over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This

led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be

killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The

son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the

case as a suicide.

[swamper 11]

now thats a long way round to top your self

[pointer28 1]

If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny.

[tom_patterdale 0]

good read must of planned the suicide well!